


let us race a little faster

by Tobi_Black



Series: Let Us 'verse [29]
Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Clone Rebellion, Force Sensitive Beru Whitesun, Gen, NaNoWriMo 2018, Post-Order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 03:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18044831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobi_Black/pseuds/Tobi_Black
Summary: Luke meets Boba on Tatooine.





	let us race a little faster

**8 BBY**

Luke _knew_ that his aunt and uncle would be less than happy with him if they found out what he was about to do, but Biggs had challenged him to a speeder race outside Mos Eisley.

His best friend had even bet the credits that he’d earned in the last race, a race that Luke hadn’t been able to enter after his uncle had refused to let him. Fifty credits wasn’t really very much, but it would be enough to get a better capacitor for his speeder after he’d had to downgrade to replace the one he’d burnt out.

Leaving during the zenith of the twin suns was admittedly not his smartest decision as he could literally _feel_ how his skin was nearly cooking even through the heavy robe Ben had given him the last time that he’d seen him, and the _faster_ he was out of the suns’ light, the better.

He’d have to thank Ben again, for how he always seemed to know what would help best in the near future. The older man was _wizard_ , and Luke wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

Luke couldn’t help his grin from behind the massive cowl as he revved the speeder and shot off across the sands, even knowing that he had perhaps an hour before his uncle would follow on his heels. He only had an hour because the older man had gotten an alert about an update to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s bounty, and any news about the Jedi always got his uncle in a tizzy.

His aunt would have seen him though, because _nothing_ ever got past her eagle eyes. It was best to not even pretend to think he could do so, it had never worked. Her intuition was something even his couldn’t beat, when she thought he was up to something.

She would give him a bit of a head start however, because his uncle had been ranting about Ben and how he needed to do things before he shot him for trespassing, _again_. She wouldn’t have otherwise, but his uncle would go off talking for at least an hour about either Obi-Wan Kenobi or Ben if there was new news of the former or he’d seen the latter recently, hardly registering any attempts to talk to him until after he ran out of breath going down the list of ‘offenses’ he had for one or the other, chief of which were their very existences.

Luke intended to take full advantage of it, because he would _win_ the race and get those credits.

He couldn’t help his laughter as he came up to the rock marking the halfway point between his uncle’s homestead and Mos Eisley, flying up and over it and catching air. Then he slammed the clutch back, popped the boosters to give him some extra lift, and _soared_.

His eyes slid shut for a moment, feeling the breeze, because _this_ was the closest that he would ever come to flying if his uncle had his way, and this momentary weightless, this heartbeat before he descended back towards the ground, was _exhilarating_. It was worth all the risk of this maneuver more suited to pod-racing, just to have this moment.

His eyes were only closed for a second, hardly nothing more than a heartbeat, before they sprang open at the grating sense of _danger_ that suddenly hit him. There was hardly a moment for his eyes to flick to either side for something he didn’t have the time to name, before something overloaded beneath the hood of his speeder and blew apart with hardly a whisper of smoke to warn him.

Luke was up and out of his seat before his eyes processed the sight as something yelled in his ear to _move_.

The speeder dropped like a stone, as Luke kicked off the back.

He fell, and landed wrong as the speeder skidded across the hot sands to stop in a crumbled, flaming heap of scrap metal.

Luke bit through his lip as a sharp sunburst of pain flared up from his calf and foot as his leg crumbled beneath him. He fell down completely, clutching at his knee while tears welled up in his eyes.

He sniffled as he looked towards the wreck of his speeder, as he _knew_ his communicator had fallen off his belt in his hasty escape of the speeder, and thus that he was stranded in the middle of the desert until someone found him. Best case scenario was if his aunt and uncle found him in an hour, but it was high noon and already he could feel his skin burning from where the cloak had ripped a bit in places. He would be looking at some serious sun-burns in just a few more minutes unless he got under cover.

Luke swiped at his running nose with a cloak-sleeve, sniffling with tears running freely down his face as he pulled at the long hem of his tunic and tried to rip up a seam so he could at least stop himself from bleeding out from where bone had broken through skin.

His hands were shaking as he tried to rip the sturdy seam, but his uncle was too good at sewing up holes in his clothes and it didn’t even stretch.

Luke scrubbed furiously at his face when his hands started looking like flesh-colored blobs, but he couldn’t stop crying.

His breathe was hiccupping when he heard the approach of a speeder, blearily looking up to see a Mandalorian bounty hunter step down. Luke reached for his blaster, too many of his uncle’s lectures about how it was always better to be safe than sorry when an unwary moment could lead to him being sold into slavery ringing in his ears, but he didn’t sense any sort of threat from the bounty hunter.

He didn’t let go of his grip though, even as he continued to scrub at his face, trying to get a better look at the bounty hunter but they were just a man-shaped green blur.

The hunter knelt next to him, “Do you want some help?”

Luke sniffed wetly as he nodded, then the bounty hunter reached into a pouch on their belt, and pulled out a patch that they slapped on his arm.

The relief was immediate, the pain in his leg dulling to something more manageable.

Luke smiled weakly, “Thank you!”

The bounty hunter waved him off, “What’s your name, kid?”

“What’s yours? I’ve never met a Mando’ade before, but I’ve always wanted to meet one. You all sound so _wizard_. Even Ben agrees and he’s all ‘from a certain point of view’ most of the time, even when it comes to the tea he likes to drink when I show up at his hut, but he agreed without any wily words.”

Luke got the sense that the bounty hunter was blinking behind his helmet, trying to process what he’d said all at once, even as he tried to remember why the symbol on the bounty hunter’s left shoulder looked familiar.

“Boba Fett”

Luke’s jaw dropped, looking at Boba with wide eyes, voice soft with awe as he realized he was looking at infamous bounty hunter son of Mand’alor Jango Fett.

“You’re _Boba_ _Fett_? That’s so _wizard!_ A real-life legend! Ben says you can always trust a Fett to keep their word, as they are the most honorable of all Mando’ade.”

Something told Luke that Boba found this amusing, and his voice was full of some secret humor as he gently lifted him off the ground.

“That’s my name, yeah. Who’s this Ben?”

Luke flailed one arm in enthusiasm as the other wrapped around Boba’s neck, holding on as the bounty hunter held him in his arms long enough to get him on his speeder.

“The most _wizard_ old man you’ll meet! People in Mos Eisley call him the Wizard of the Wastes, because he lives in Tusken territory without any problems. _I_ call him the Wizard because he’s just so _wizard_.”

As everything got a little floaty from the pain medication, he hardly noticed as his head lolled back against Boba’s armor while the bounty hunter took off, talking into his communicator to someone that sounded a _lot_ like Ben.

He fell asleep like that, and didn’t wake up until he was back home with his aunt fussing over his leg and just barely able to hear his uncle yelling at Ben, though he couldn’t make out the words.


End file.
